More tests for water quality are ordered

Initial study indicates a test well drilled at Cairo Municipal Airport last month will produce the volume of water city officials hoped to find, but the city’s consulting engineer is requesting additional water quality studies.
“We found plenty of water. The volume is there and we have good quantity, but our engineer wants to do more testing for water quality. It will require getting the well driller back on site and it should be done in the next few weeks,” Cairo City Manager Chris Addleton said Monday.
Stacy Watkins of the Tifton firm Watkins & Associates is serving as the city’s consulting engineer on the project. Sam Martin Well Drilling, Inc., of Rentz, Ga., is the contractor on the job.
The city of Cairo’s public water system is one of 35, primarily in Southwest Georgia, that is being monitored by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division due to levels of naturally occurring arsenic in the city’s water supply. The detectable levels in Cairo water is below the allowable level and no special treatment is required.
According to Addleton, the city is making plans to be able to treat for naturally occurring arsenic in the future.
The city is planning to dig a new water well and construct a treatment plant at the airport. Included in the city budget is $2 million for the project, along with $120,000 to run three-phase electrical service to the airport and $200,000 for the extension of a water line on Airport Road to the proposed plant location.
“Hopefully, we will collect additional samples for water quality testing in the next few weeks and have results back shortly after,” Addleton said this week.
In related news, Addleton reported a preconstruction conference on the Seventh Avenue Lift Station replacement project would be held Thursday and a notice to proceed will be issued on Sept. 4.